Senior AI-First Data Engineer for AI-Native Platform

Smartcat; Georgia; Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Smartcat is building the future of work with AI-first data capabilities. We seek a Senior Data Engineer to help transform our data platform into an AI-native foundation, enabling self-service analytics and agent-driven decision support across the company.

You will partner with Data, Product, Engineering, GTM, and AI teams to craft a modern cloud data platform, moving from batch to streaming pipelines, and driving reliability, governance, and performance across the stack.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in Data Engineering or Analytics Engineering.
• Proven track record designing and operating modern cloud data platforms.
• Experience in high-growth SaaS environments.
• Experience working with both technical and business stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex projects from design through delivery.

Responsibilities

• Evolve our architecture into scalable cloud-native AI-first architecture.
• Lead the transition from batch-oriented pipelines to near real-time and streaming data systems.
• Improve reliability, observability, governance, and performance across the data stack.
• Establish engineering standards and best practices for data development.
• Build data products that can be consumed by AI agents, analytics systems, and business users.
• Enable semantic layers, metadata management, and knowledge structures that make data more accessible and actionable.
• Create foundations for agent-driven reporting, forecasting, and business intelligence.
• Help transform business metrics from static dashboards into living operational systems.
• Use AI to accelerate development, testing, documentation, monitoring, and operational workflows.
• Design systems that allow AI agents to query, understand, and act on business data safely.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and identify opportunities to increase productivity across the data organization.
• Help establish Smartcat as an AI-native data organization, leveraging AI to increase productivity and talent density across the company.
• Make analytics simpler and more accessible for non-technical stakeholders.
• Improve usability and adoption of BI tools such as Omni and future AI-powered analytics experiences.
• Enable self-service analytics without sacrificing governance or data quality.
• Reduce time-to-insight across Product, Revenue, Marketing, Customer Success, and Finance teams.
• Raise the engineering bar through mentorship, code reviews, architecture leadership, and knowledge sharing.
• Influence technical direction across Data Engineering and Analytics Engineering.
• Partner with stakeholders to align platform investments with business priorities.

Skills

Databricks

dbt

Airflow

Python for data engineering

SQL & data modeling

Data warehousing

Data quality frameworks

Data governance

Data orchestration & integration

Tools

Databricks

dbt

Airflow

Python for data engineering

SQL & data modeling

Data warehousing

Data quality frameworks

Data governance

Data orchestration & integration

Job description

Smartcat is building the future of work with AI-first data capabilities. We seek a Senior Data Engineer to help transform our data platform into an AI-native foundation, enabling self-service analytics and agent-driven decision support across the company.

You will partner with Data, Product, Engineering, GTM, and AI teams to craft a modern cloud data platform, moving from batch to streaming pipelines, and driving reliability, governance, and performance across the stack.